Discovering the One
by Lizzielynch22
Summary: The story of the Matrix from Trinity and Neo's point of view with some extra stuff that wasn't in the film. Hoping to go from before the events in the Matrix up to just before the Matrix reloaded.
1. Chapter 1

"We've found another potential," Morpheus said, his eyes lit with enthusiasm. "I think he might really be 'The One'"

Trinity stifled her eye roll and eyed her other crew members. They too looked disbelieving, Morpheus found a new potential every other week and they always turned out the same, dead or just another ordinary red pill who managed to escape the Matrix. With every passing year that Trinity had worked with Morpheus her belief had decreased. Whenever he used to mention another candidate she used to feel a thrill run through her, only to be disappointed when she finally laid eyes on them. Now she knew better, there was no point in getting her hopes up because it was likely that 'The One' didn't actually exist. Even if the Oracle had told her that she would help Morpheus find him. In fact, the Oracle's words had caused her to lose faith like nothing else would have done. She could clearly remember every moment of that meeting. The nerves as she had stood in the Oracle's kitchen, not really sure if she believed in the older woman's abilities but trusting Morpheus enough that she was worried about what she might have to say. Never in a million years had Trinity thought that she would be told about a great romance in her future. It had made the whole meeting almost comical, like the old fortune tellers in the Matrix who would predict a tall, dark and handsome stranger in whoever happened to be paying's future. Not only that but Trinity cared too much about her job, about the future of the human race for her to worry about relationships. Then the Oracle and revealed that this man also happened to be 'The One'. The man that was to save all of them. Trinity had left that meeting, determined to forget all about it. She was in control of her own damn fate and no one could tell her what her future would be. Then the other predictions had started to come true, and she had started to believe that maybe there was something to it after all. As she had gotten older, and the candidates that Morpheus had found had become younger, Trinity had realised that either, the Oracle had been mistaken, or they had already missed their chance. Anyone that Trinity could realistically love would now be too old to be released from the Matrix, too dependent on the system that if they tried he was likely to die in the attempt. So she had stopped helping Morpheus look, instead waiting for him to find the candidates that she would dutifully watch until they knew for sure. Sometimes she considered telling Morpheus what the Oracle had told her, but she always felt that it was too personal and she didn't want to ruin Morpheus's faith. It was all he had.

"What makes you think that?" Apoc asked when the silence had started to become uncomfortable.

Morpheus grinned, his teeth flashing in the artificial light of the Neb's dingy kitchen. "He is looking for me, asking questions about the Matrix. I watched him hack his way into an FBI database to find a story about me. It was impressive."

Trinity swallowed her mouthful, "There are plenty of good hacker's out there Morpheus who aren't the One. Plenty asking about the Matrix too." Her gaze swept around the room, the rest of her crew looking as unimpressed by Morpheus's theory as she felt.

Shaking his head, Morpheus continued to smile. He believed so strongly in his role in this war that he had never cared in other people's opinions. It had cost him a lot of friends, and Niobe. "You will see Trinity, once we have watched him for a while. There is something about him."

Trinity squared her shoulder's, though she didn't believe in the One anymore, she did believe in Morpheus and would do everything in her power to support him. He had saved her from the Matrix, had shown her the truth and given her a home on this ship and in Zion. He had even made her his second-in-command on this ship when she had been ready, much to the annoyance of a lot of people in Zion. "Ok, has tank got his file? I'll read through it and sort out a rota for us to watch him."

Morpheus nodded his head, "It's all in the construct, ready to go. Mouse has already volunteered to take the first watch, he is with Tank and Dozer now."

It was Trinity's turn to nod. She stood quickly, taking her bowl with her to the sink where she washed it, before heading out of the room. Switch followed her out the room, leaving her own bowl for Apoc to clean out. Trinity didn't stop the eye roll this time, "Could you be anymore subtle Switch?"

Switch shrugged, "Morpheus knows that we all talk about every potential anyway. Why try to hide it?"

Trinity took in her best friend. She had been working with Switch for the last 8 years and trusted her more than anyone else, though she still hadn't told her about the Oracle's prediction. Trinity was taking that secret to the grave with her.

"So, want to have a small wager? A weeks worth of washing up if this one turns out to be a false alarm?" Switch continued, her white blonde hair turning slightly blue in the light of the core that they were passing.

Trinity gave a rare smile, "No deal."

Switch snorted, "It could happen. According to the Oracle it is a guarantee, Morpheus is going to find him. He is going to save us in the war against the machines. Blah blah blah."

"You used to believe it," Trinity said quietly as they headed towards a bank of computers.

"So did you. It's been too long, too many potentials have come and gone and we aren't any closer to anything. I'm starting to feel like we are wasting our time." Switch half whispered, not wanting Tank, Dozer of Mouse to hear them.

Trinity didn't reply, though she definitely agreed. She strode up to Tank who was watching the monitors in front of him closely. Checking for any danger that could threaten Mouse who was jacked into the Matrix. "How long has he been in there?" Trinity asked softly. Mouse was their newest recruit and having him plugged into the Matrix without anyone else there to watch over him made her feel uncomfortable. He was barely 18 and acted even younger.

"About 30 minutes," Tank replied, not taking his eyes off the screen, "He is in the same room as an exit. If anything goes wrong I can get him out in less than 10 seconds."

Trinity nodded, turning her own attention to the screen to watch Mouse. Trinity no longer even saw the green code that ran down the screen, it had taken her a few years to get used to but now she could read it easily. Mouse was sat in a room in a quiet building, a computer in front of him which he was watching avidly. There was a phone next to him, presumably the exit that Tank had mentioned. "Get me hooked up. I need the information we have on this new potential and then I will take over for Mouse."

"You got it. Though Mouse will be pissed that you pulled him early," Tank said with a laugh. Loading up the information that Trinity would need as he spoke.

Trinity smiled grimly, "Until he has more training and experience he will have to deal with it." She headed towards her usual pod. Turning on the computed next to the chair that closely resembled that of a dentist's chair that you would find in the Matrix. She sat down into it, strapping in her own feet as Dozer worked behind her. Once strapped in she laid back, relaxing herself as Dozer came into view.

"You ready?" he asked with a kind smile. Even though Dozer was huge, he was the gentlest person that Trinity had ever met. She often wondered why he had wanted to come on the Neb with the rest of the crew. He had a beautiful family in Zion who he missed every day. Trinity glanced towards Tank, he was Dozer's brother but clearly loved the work that he did. Even if it was hard and sometimes lonely. Trinity suspected that Tank was the reason that Dozer had come to work on a ship rather than work in Zion, though she would never bring that up with either of them.

"As I'll ever be," she said seriously and shut her eyes and Dozer injected the jack into her head port.

The transfer of information only took a couple of seconds but it felt much longer to Trinity, she was able to analyse everything as it was transferred. She could see everything that Morpheus and Tank had discovered about this new candidate, whose name was Thomas Anderson, though he went by the hacker alias of Neo. There was a picture that was downloaded straight into Trinity's head and as she first laid hers on him her heart stuttered. He was handsome, very handsome. He had dark brown hair, deep chocolate coloured eyes and a strong jaw. He was tall and lean, though not skinny. He was also pale, like all hackers who spent too much time in the world of computers. Trinity was so lost in staring at him that it took her a second to realise how much older he was than normal. He was 32. Way too old to be released from the Matrix and survive it.

Once the download was complete Trinity opened her eyes, and glared at Tank in fury. "He is 32! He is too old. We will kill him," she said angrily, shaken to her core. This had been the last thing she expected. The oldest candidate they had looked at before had been 22, and that had been pushing it. "What is Morpheus thinking?"

"32?" Switch asked, mouth gaping wide in shock.

Tank shrugged sheepishly, "Morpheus really believes he is the One. If he is there is no way that he will die during extraction, it's impossible."

Trinity gritted her teeth, "And if he isn't the One? What's to stop him from dying then?"

Tank flushed guiltily, "I don't think Morpheus has considered that possibility."

"Of course I have considered it," Morpheus interrupted casually as he strode into the core, "We won't do anything until we are sure. For now we will watch him, give him a few hints to help guide his search. Only when we are sure will we contact him."

Trinity closed her eyes in irritation, "Is there any point in actually following him? The extraction won't work, he will reject it. You've seen what that does to people. It happens to those much younger than he is." She opened her eyes again, focusing on Morpheus.

He met Trinity's stare head on, "I believe in him. If he is the One the extraction will not kill him. It might be harder than normal but he will survive it."

Trinity stared at Morpheus, he was so calm and sure that she knew that nothing would change his mind. Instead she nodded shakily, turning to Tank at the computers, "Get Mouse out, I'll take over."

Tank smiled in relief, glad that the worst was over and quickly started typing on the computer, making the necessary call to Mouse and hacking Trinity into the system.

She closed her eyes, and when she next opened them she was stood inside the room that she had seen Mouse in earlier. It was small and rundown. Paper was peeling from the walls and the only chair in the room was chipped. Trinity sat down on the chair, ignoring the dank smell, and turned her attention to the computer screens in front of her. On one she could see a search running and knew instantly that she was watching Neo's search through the web. It was fascinating to see the way that his mind worked. Morpheus hadn't been wrong about that, Neo was talented. Though given his age it wasn't too surprising that he was better than the teenagers they normally watched. Trinity thought back to that picture of Neo she had seen and compared it to the image on the other screen. The picture must have been recent, it was almost identical to the man that she was looking at. He was staring avidly at the screen in front of him, typing almost continuously, only stopping to read something of interest. Most stories were centered around Morpheus, though every so often her own name would crop up and a small thrill ran through her, knowing that he was reading about her as well.

Trinity didn't notice the passage of time. She was so focused on the screens, watching every move that he made, that she didn't get bored like she normally did. She was enjoying the slight crease that would appear when Neo came across a particularly difficult code to hack, only for it to clear a couple of seconds later when the answer came to him. Every so often Trinity would guide his search, dropping a small breadcrumb here and there which he followed eagerly. It was something she was adept at now, she had to walk a fine line between giving him the answers and letting him work out things for himself. She could only give hints that he had to sort through. Though she did somethings throw a hard bit of coding at him, something she normally didn't do, to see that little crease again. Every time it appeared she struggled not to smile and every time he managed to break through it she was impressed. So lost was she in what she was doing, she jumped when the phone next to her rang. She glanced at the time on the computer screen, shocked when she realised that she had been watching him for nearly five hours. Without taking her eyes from Neo, who looked like he was about to fall asleep at any second, she reached for the phone and brought it to her ear.

Her eyes opened in the real world, Cyther removing the jack from her head. She sat up quickly, eager not to let Cyther linger over her and glanced quickly to her left. Apoc had taken over.

"What do you think then?" Cyther asked quickly, hovering too close to Trinity's chair.

She stood up quickly, putting some space between them and shrugged. "Morpheus was right about the hacking, he is talented."

Cyther eyed her shrewdly, noting the distance now between them, "And about the other thing?"

"You know my thoughts on the One, Cyther." She said giving another shrug. Even if she had found Neo to be attractive, it didn't mean that he was the One. She had found plenty of people to be attractive in the past. Whenever she had gotten to know those people the attraction had died pretty quickly, she normally ended up befriending them instead. Of course, this was the first time since she was a teenager herself that a potential had been the right age for her. She pushed the thought out of her head quickly. She didn't believe in the One anymore and it would take a lot more than a pretty face to change that. Though she did believe that she was going to enjoy watching him more than any other past potential.


	2. Chapter 2

Trinity woke up shivering. Judging by the tension in her body and jaw she had been shivering for quite a while before the cold had finally permeated her sleep. The engines thrummed quietly around her so she knew that the boiler must have gone again. Gritting her teeth in irritation she threw off her thin blanket and sat up, hissing as her feet hit the cold metal of the floor. She quickly threw on two jumpers, her trousers and her combat boots before looking around at her meager possessions. In the real world you didn't need much, she had no personal affects littering her room, just some spare jumpers, all of which had holes in them, and a drawer full of trousers and underwear. The jumpers she wore scratched at her skin, nothing like the clothes in the Matrix, but at least they were real.

Trinity left her room, running her hand through her cropped hair in frustration. The boiler was notoriously temperamental but this was the second time it had gone this week. They would have to stop back in Zion soon to get new parts so that they could fix it properly. When she was descending a ladder to a lower deck where she would be able to reach the boiler room, Trinity spotted Apoc. Her mind instantly flicked to Neo, remembering that Apoc had taken the night shift in watching him and forgetting about the boiler completely. "Apoc," she called softly, not wanting to wake anyone that might be sleeping through the cold.

Apoc turned towards her, a smile tugging at his lips, "I know what you're gonna say, Switch is on it."

"Switch is on shift?" Trinity asked eagerly.

Apoc frowned slightly, "What? Watching the potential? No, I meant she is fixing the damn boiler. The whole ship is like ice. I feel sorry for Cyther, being jacked in. We've had to put a blanket on him to stop him getting too cold."

"Oh right, yeah the boiler." Trinity answered distractedly, having forgotten the cold, "How was your shift last night? Anything exciting happen?"

Apoc rolled his eyes, "If you call watching a grown man snoring all night exciting then yeah, it was thrilling. I swear you got the best shift. Cyther is having to watch him at work and is bored out of his mind."

Trinity grimaced, the night watch of any potential was definitely the most boring. Though she would have found him working to be more interesting, "You've spoken to Cyther while he is on shift?"

Apoc shook his head, "Not me, he was speaking to Tank. You know Cyther isn't the best hacker there is, he needed help from Tank to hack into the CCTV cameras as he made his way to work. Hacking the national grid is harder for him. He already had the cameras at the potentials work sorted. But yeah, he was complaining like we had asked him to do double kitchen duty." Apoc rolled his eyes and grinned.

Trinity didn't return the smile. Though she loved everyone on the ship like her family, she was annoyed that Cyther didn't take training more seriously. He was the weakest hacker on the ship and it could really let them down one day. Though Trinity also realised that her lack of patience with him wasn't helped by his obvious attraction to her. She knew that it wasn't his fault that she didn't return the sentiment, but after 6 years she had hoped that he would have given it a rest.

"Reckon Switch needs a hand?" Trinity asked instead, needing to change the subject from Neo.

"Nah, she almost bit my head off when I offered to help. I'm going to get some food before going to sleep instead," Apoc answered, yawning widely.

"I'll come with you then. I've grown fond of my head being attached to my body," Trinity replied dryly, heading back up the ladder she had come down.

Mouse and Dozer were already in the mess hall when Trinity and Apoc entered. They were playing cards and Mouse was pleading with Dozer to play another hand. "Look, I'll go double or nothing," he said earnestly.

Dozer laughed softly, "You're already doing my laundry for a month and my kitchen duty for two. Know when to quit kid."

Trinity shook her head at them, filling up a bowl with the gelatinous slop that made up every meal. The food in the Matrix was 100x better but again, at least this was real.

Mouse turned to face Trinity when she sat down, forgetting his cards instantly as his face lit up, "So what do you think of Neo?"

A small jolt shot through Trinity, like she had just been hit by some static electricity. It was the first time that anyone had said his name out loud. Annoyed at herself Trinity answered Mouse honestly. "He is pretty talented at hacking. Even I was impressed at some of the information he was digging up."

"Do you think Morpheus has found him then? Do you think he is the One?" Mouse asked, leaning towards Trinity eagerly.

Mouse's faith had not been shaken yet, he truly believed in the prophecy and, seeing as this was the first potential they had found since he joined the crew, he was obviously excited. "Morpheus believes he is. That's all that matters. We will watch him until we know more."

Mouse beamed, "It's exciting isn't it? Just think about it Trin, if he _is_ the One then he can stop the war. We could live in Zion in peace. Maybe work on clearing the sky so we could go back to living on the surface."

Trinity didn't say anything, she knew just how unlikely that was to happen but she didn't want to take his hope from him.

Dozer answered instead, "Yeah kid, that would be exciting." He said it softly, giving Trinity a look that showed that he thought it as unlikely as she did.

* * *

"Here's the Rota I've drawn up for watching the potential," Trinity said, handing the schedule to Morpheus. She didn't know why she didn't say Neo, it felt too personal saying his name somehow. Using his given name in the Matrix was also out of the question, they only used the names that they gave themselves in the real world.

Morpheus scanned it quickly, "You're on here a lot."

It wasn't a question but Trinity answered it anyway, "Mouse needs more training, he shouldn't be going in on his own. I didn't want the rest of the crew to pull more shifts because of it." She shrugged her shoulders like she didn't really care about it, but she was only telling a half truth. She could have easily made the others do more shifts but she _wanted_ to do it. Though she convinced herself that it was only because she had no one else that nice to look at on the ship.

Morpheus nodded, "I'll get the others to help train him while you're on shift. He can go in when you're on duty sometimes too so you can show him the ropes. You'll have to trust him at some point Trinity."

Trinity nodded, "I know. I will. I just want to be careful."

"You start getting tired, you make someone else do a shift. You come and get me to do it." Morpheus said seriously. He wasn't a captain who would sit around and let others do the hard work. He did as much as any of them, though perhaps slightly less than Trinity and only then because she expected more of herself than anyone else on the ship.

"I will. I have to go, Cyther's shift is coming to an end and I'm taking over for him." Trinity said quietly, not mentioning that she had deliberately planned the schedule that way.

Trinity made her way into the core, Dozer was sat at the computer acting as the operator while Tank rested.

"Time to get him out," Trinity said while striding to her own pod and turning it on.

"He'll be pleased," Dozer replied, typing out instructions that would jack Trinity in, before making the call to Cyther to get him out.

They timed it perfectly, Dozer sliding the jack into Trinity's head just as Cyther opened his eyes. Neo was only left unguarded for a few seconds before Trinity was back in the dingy, chipped chair watching Neo on the monitor. He was still at work and looked the same as he had last night, but he had changed clothes. He was now wearing a suit rather than his sweatpants from the night before. He looked tired, sat hunched over a desk with a 5 o'clock shadow covering his jaw. Trinity watched diligently as he went about the last couple of hours of his work day. She found that not only was he a good looking, seriously skilled hacker, he was also very kind. He always held the door for others, ensuring that anyone carrying something was alright and even catching a female co-worker when she tripped in front of him. Trinity ignored the flash of jealousy that raced through her as she watched his hands steady her. Despite this though, he was completely overlooked. It was like he wasn't even there, like he wasn't a part of their world. Even the woman who he had stopped from falling over barely nodded at him. It wasn't a wonder that he was questioning the world that he was living in, he was so clearly out of step with everyone around him. When he finally finished his day, he made his way back to his apartment where he spent the rest of the evening eating takeout while searching the internet for answers. It annoyed her that she couldn't hear anything that he was saying, every so often his mouth would move and she desperately wanted to know what he was mumbling to himself.

Trinity was as fascinated as she was the night before and was sad when the phone beside her rang, signalling the end of her shift. With a sigh and a last look at Neo, she grabbed the phone and opened her eyes back in the Neb.

"Have fun?" Tank asked with a small laugh.

"You know it," Trinity replied with her usual sarcasm, though she really had enjoyed her shift. "Poor Switch has the worst shift today," Trinity said, jerking her chin towards her friends chair.

Tank grinned, "Yep, she already complained about your schedule. She seems to think that you've given yourself the most interesting shifts."

Trinity smiled tightly, and changed the subject, "Any way to get a audio of him? Watching him is all very well and good but we might be missing things when he is talking."

Tank shook his head regretfully, "Not without going to his apartment or office and planting a mic. Morpheus doesn't want to risk it."

Trinity shivered slightly, even though the boiler had been fixed hours ago. "Yeah, that would be too much of a risk. We don't want them knowing that we are watching him."

Tank gave her a serious look, they both knew that she was talking about the Agents. If they knew that Morpheus thought Neo was the One, they would kill him.


	3. Chapter 3

"Thats the third time this week!" Mouse complained, his teeth chattering with the cold.

Trinity tried not to sigh, it wouldn't be long before the boiler broke completely, "Ive fixed it now, it'll heat up soon."

"Is it fixed fixed? Or is it fixed for the next few days?" Cyther sneered, the ever increasing bitterness plain on his face.

"There isn't anything else that I can do. I can only patch it up for now," Trinity shrugged.

Cyther scoffed, "There is something else we can do. We can go to Zion and get it fixed. It might last a whole month then."

Trinity felt her anger increasing, she could understand Mouse complaining, he was so green that he wasn't used to life on a ship, Cyther knew the drill though. He was starting to really annoy her. If he hadn't saved her life so many times in the past she'd be tempted to kick his arse before reporting him to Morpheus. "We've been through this Cyther. We can't leave broadcast level when we are watching a potential. The journey to Zion, fixing the boiler and getting back could take a week, maybe two. Anything could happen in that time.

"So? We both know he isn't the One Trin, there is no such thing. I say let the Agents find him and be done with it."

Trinity took a deep breath, as second in command she couldn't lose her temper. No matter how much it was warranted. Only when she knew she wouldn't jump over the table and hit Cyther in the mouth did she reply, "It doesn't matter what you or I think. Morpheus is the captain, if you don't like the way he runs things I'll find you a new ship to work on the next time we are in Zion."

Cyther smirked, "You'll miss my honesty if I'm not around Trin." He stood up, winked at her and left the mess hall.

"Do you really not think he is the one Trin?" Mouse asked quietly, his eyes round with surprise.

"Like I said to Cyther, it really doesn't matter what I believe. I believe in Morpheus and I will follow him until the end." Trinity sighed. "Get some rest Mouse, you're going on shift with me soon." She quickly washed her cup before leaving Mouse on his own. He looked deep in thought. Trinity hated not being able to reassure him, but she also couldn't lie to him. They'd been watching Neo for nearly two weeks now and nothing he had done had convinced her that he was the One yet. She knew that she was attracted to him, but how could she not be? She was pretty sure that most women with a pulse would be, apart from maybe Switch who was so into Apoc other men weren't on her radar.

Trinity made her way to the control room, she wanted to check on Switch who was just about to finish a shift. Trinity had been diligent in making sure that she wasn't coming to the core too often, she didn't want her crew to think that she was showing too much interest in Neo. So even though she wanted constant updates on what was happening, she forced herself to carry out her other jobs around the ship, only asking those coming off a shift how it had gone. Luckily everyone was well used to her coming to see Switch after a shift that they didn't bat an eyelid.

"Tank, how's it going?" she asked softly, resting her arm on the back of the operators chair, her eyes focussing on the screen that showed Switch sitting in the room.

Tank stretched, clicking his neck slightly, "Nothing exciting to report. This guy does the same thing everyday. The most exciting thing we've found out about was that he sells illegal programmes, but that was over a week ago. Switch is annoyed."

Trinity smiled, Switch was the least patient of the crew and hated doing surveillance, "Switch finds any potential boring, you know that."

Tank laughed, "She'll be happy, she only has five minutes left until Morpheus takes over."

Trinity frowned slightly, "Isn't Apoc supposed to be on shift next?"

Tank eyed Trinity, "Since when do you memorise the rota?"

Trinity desperately willed herself not to blush. It was true, she normally never remembered a rota, even if she had spent days making it. This time was different though, she was restless and found herself looking forward to each of her own shifts, so she had learned who should be on when so that she knew exactly how many hours she had to wait until it was her turn. "I just know I'm supposed to take over from Apoc in the morning," she said with a casual shrug.

"I decided that there is some information I need Neo to find," Morpheus said as he strode into the core, "we've been watching him for two weeks now. We need him to find out everything he can about us before we contact him, he must trust us, or at least trust that we have the answers he is looking for. Every day he is left plugged in is dangerous. We need to speed this up."

"Contact him?" Trinity asked in shock, ignoring the thrill that ran through her at the idea of talking to Neo. "You said that we wouldn't contact him until we were sure? It's only been two weeks and he hasn't done anything special in that time!"

"I've told you before Trinity, I am sure. I want him ready for extraction in four weeks." Morpheus strode to the computer next to his chair, loading it up so he was ready to jack in.

Trinity followed him, keeping her voice low. "Four weeks isn't enough time! Most other potentials we have watched for months before making a move. If we do this too quickly, if he isn't the One, you'll kill him." The idea of him dying made her feel queasy which was stupid. She shouldn't be so attached to him, she never got like this about other potentials, but she was weirdly protective about Neo.

"Tank, get switch out and load me up," Morpheus said, lying down in his chair.

Assuming that he wasn't going to reply Trinity quickly did up his straps, fighting back her annoyance. She trusted Morpheus, but in this case she didn't agree with him. She avoided looking at his face until she had the jack into position and she caught his eye.

"I know the risk Trinity. I know what I'm doing. He is the One."

Trinity nodded and the slid the jack into Morpheus's head port and his eyes closed.

"He really is the most boring blue pill I've ever seen," Switch grumbled from behind her.

* * *

Mouse strutted into the room, a proud grin lighting up his face. "I just got off shift," he said casually as he grabbed himself a bowl of food, "it was a long one."

Trinity stifled a smile, it was the first time that Mouse had done an entire shift on his own. Luckily for him, Trinity had been caught up making some repairs to the neb and hadn't managed to go check on him.

"Anything exciting happen?" Switch asked seriously, though Trinity could see the laughter in her eyes. He had had the night shift, Neo would have been asleep for most of it and Switch knew it.

Mouse swaggered over to the table, "He did a bit of research on Trin and then fell asleep. I made sure nothing bad happened to him."

Trinity's heart squeezed slightly, "He was researching me?"

"Yep. Looking at everything he could find about the time you hacked the IRS database."

Trinity nodded, going back to her food. That had been an impressive hack. She smiled, that would have definitely impressed Neo.

Switch patted Mouse on the shoulder, "Lucky you were watching him Mouse. Who knows what could have happened if you hadn't been there!"

Trinity couldn't help the smile this time as Mouse puffed out his chest.

"Who's watching him now?" Switch asked.

"Cyther. He said he hates watching him at work but at least it wasn't the night shift," Mouse replied eagerly, "I don't know what he is talking about though. The night shift is the most important one, Neo is at his most vulnerable then."

Switch nodded seriously, her mouth twitching slightly.

Trinity tuned them out, concentrating on her own food. She felt restless, it had been a week since Morpheus had declared the deadline. Since then Trinity had started taking more shifts watching Neo. She now didn't care what anyone else thought about it, she needed him to be as prepared as possible for his meeting with Morpheus. She was now on shift at least once a day, sometimes two if she could manage it and she didn't care what her crew thought of it. They certainly weren't complaining as it was less work for them, but she knew they were a bunch of gossips and she was sure they were talking about it behind her back. Cyther was the only one who made any snide remarks to her face about it though. Once she had finished eating, she left the mess hall. She had to finish some welding on a lower deck and then she would take over from Cyther tonight. It was supposed to be Apocs shift but he wouldn't mind an evening off. She was so lost in thought that she hadn't noticed Switch following her out of the mess hall as well.

"Hello, Earth to Trin. Come in Trin," Switch said quietly, tugging on Trinity's shoulder.

"Sorry Switch, I was in my own world," Trinity smiled. She headed for the lower decks, Switch trailing behind her.

"So, are you going to tell me what's going on?" Switch asked quietly.

"I've got to finish some welding. You don't normally show any interest in my chores."

Switch rolled her eyes, "You know I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about your sudden interest in the blue pill we are watching. You've never taken on extra shifts with any other potential. Don't tell me you believe he is the one."

Trinity sighed, only Switch would have the courage to ask these questions, "Of course I don't. It's just that we normally have more time. Ever since Morpheus put this deadline on it, I've got to make sure he is ready. We both know that I'm the best hacker on this ship. I can lead him to the information he needs. Over three months or so I have enough shifts to do that. Over six weeks I haven't."

"And you are sure it hasn't got anything to do with how hot he is?" Switch asked slyly, watching Trinity carefully.

"How hot he is?" Trinity asked in shock, mouth dry.

"Oh come on Trin. I've worked with you for years. I'd have bought that hook line and sinker before, but you're taking shifts were it is impossible to feed him information. You are always asking questions about him, whenever he gets brought up you go still and concentrate solely on the conversation and just now you looked way too happy that Neo had been researching you as well." Switch raised her eyebrows, daring Trinity to deny it.

"In all the years you've known me Switch, how many times have I found someone attractive? We have a war to fight, I don't have time to for a relationship of any kind. Any shift is good for information, whether it's learning or giving. It will all be useful in the end." Trinity shrugged, she didn't like that the rest of the crew might be thinking these things. It was her business. No one else's. So what if she found him attractive? Or that she found him fascinating to watch? It didn't mean anything and it definitely wasn't affecting her work, was it?

Switch eyed her carefully, "Ok. If that's the line you're sticking too I'll bite. It's ok to like someone though Trin. You can find him attractive and still do your job. Apoc makes the war worth fighting and my life worth living, just think about it." Switch patted her on the shoulder before leaving.

Trinity watched her friend leave in silence. She had given up on the idea of romance a long time ago. She was sure that the second she spoke to Neo, she would be over the small attraction she had developed for him. Trinity got back to her welding, trying to ignore the small voice inside of her that had scoffed at the idea of her attraction being 'small'.


End file.
